Over the course of three years, a small district in rural Oklahoma partnered with ALP to support the district’s 1:1 laptop initiative across its middle and high schools. At the outset of each academic year, site principals and ALP leadership coaches devise a plan to utilize a pre-determined number of face-to-face and virtual consulting days. In 2015, the middle school principals co-developed a capacity-building plan to accomplish the following outcomes:
- A two-day Summer Institute designed to train Instructional Coaches and Department Chairs to support teachers and students as schools launches the 1:1 technology rich learning environment.
- Three virtual sessions between August and October in which the ALP leadership coach guided school leaders in crafting a plan to engage teachers in utilizing resources, strategies, and techniques leveraged during the Summer Institute, which produced concrete deliverables that allowed site leadership to communicate clear expectations for classroom management and curriculum design in a 1:1 classroom.
- Three classroom coaching days to coincide with PLC meetings, which allowed the leadership coaches to model best practice while continuously challenging leadership capacity in the building.
- Virtual collaboration between the ALP coach and site leadership teams at each building to build a continuous improvement process into their walk-through and teacher evaluation protocols, promoting improved transparency and dialogue around professional growth.
These carefully outlined steps translated into incremental growth within the district that, like all sustainable successes, started slow and gained momentum upon the success of foundational steps.
“I am very proud of our partnership with ALP and results of our collaboration. All three ALP coaches who have helped site and central administrative teams with the high and middle school technology initiatives have been excellent facilitators and deep resources. Thank you very much for your support—both face to face and virtual.
— Director of Technology, Oklahoma School District
